NATIONAL DAY CALENDAR CLASSROOM – Week 1 – August 13, 2018
National Day Calendar is excited for the new school year! Along with new projects and lessons, we’ve also created an archive of last year’s articles for educators to reference and use all year long. We have trivia every day to challenge students of all ages, and we’ve added recipes that can be made at home or in the classroom. This year, crosswords and word searches are a challenging addition, too! Of course, it’s a learning experience all around, so we hope you will continue to grow with us!
Our first week in the classroom features Left-Hander’s Day. We will take a look at the predominance of left-handed and footedness and see how it affects each of us. Get ready for some experiments and to learn some vocabulary, too! Don’t forget to download the puzzles for this week, too.
Sharing on social media isn’t required, learning is. But if you do, please use #NDCClassroom to share on social media.
LESSON 1
Only 10 percent of the population are left-handed. A southpaw is a nickname for someone who is predominately left-handed. It’s usually given to an athlete, especially a boxer or a baseball pitcher. Opponents find it difficult to defend against their rarer seen punches and pitches.
The Latin dexter means right or skillful. It gives us the words right-hand and dexterity.
Those who use both their right and left hands equally well are called ambidextrous. Approximately 1 percent of the population claim this skill.
Look up these words in the dictionary and write sentences using each word.
southpaw
dexterity
ambidextrous
FUN FACTS
These famous people were all left-handed:
Aristotle
Marie Curie
Pierre Curie
Leonardo da Vinci
Babe Ruth
Eight U.S. Presidents
Benjamin Franklin
Ruth Bader Ginsberg
Helen Keller
Queen Victoria
Julius Caesar
General H. Norman Schwarzkopf
Lewis Carroll
Eudora Welty
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
Judy Garland
Cole Porter
Michelangelo
Kermit the Frog
LESSON 2
You will need a bubble solution, wands and a piece of paper to record results. On the board, create a chart similar to the one below to record the students’ results.
The objective is to determine which hand and foot is dominant in each student by blowing bubbles and having the student pop the bubbles first with their hand and then their foot. Head outside and have each student pair take turns blowing bubbles for their partner.
- Write the name of your partner at the top of your paper.
- Write FOOT under your partner’s name.
- Number from 1-3 under the word FOOT.
- Write HAND under the first set of numbers.
- Write from 1-3 under the word HAND.
- Blow a few bubbles for your partner low to the ground. Record and L or an R for the FIRST foot your partner uses to pop the bubbles next to the number 1 under FOOT.
- Blow a few bubbles higher. Record an L or an R for the FIRST hand your partner uses to pop the bubbles.
- Repeat steps 6 and 7 until you have completed them three times.
- Switch places so your partner is blowing bubbles, and you are popping them.
- Record your results on the master chart or on the board.
Record in the far right column whether the student was right or left dominant. If there were students that were equally mixed, record the data as MIXED. How does your classroom compare to the population average?
